Native Alaskans have had nothing but grief, it seems, since the purchase. In the book "Orthodox Alaska" it tells of how the US gov't sent Presbyterian "missionaries" to the "heathens" -- the people in question were Russian Orthodox, and their priests were all Alaska-born natives (some of mixed blood but many pure Tlingit/etc.). They were told that they were Americans now and their prayer books and gospel books, written in the cyrillic alphabet but in their various tribal languages, were burned, and their children were forcibly removed from their parents and sent to boarding schools on the mainland where they were "Americanized."

My heart goes out to the natives of Alaska, and it pains me to hear your story, although I'm glad you mentioned it.

Alex
O..O
=o=